One movie not doing so well at the box office is “Whip It,” the Drew Barrymore-directed tale of a small-town Texas teen trying her hand in an Austin roller-derby league.

While “Paranormal Activity” is churning up the box-office chart, “Whip it” didn’t even make the Top 10 last weekend. It earned only $1.5 million in its third week of release, which left it in 11th place with a paltry gross of $11.4 million.

This despite a healthy Tomatometer rating of 82 and a critical consensus summed up thusly: “While made from overly familiar ingredients, Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut has enough charm, energy, and good-natured humor to transcend its many cliches.”

Having seen it last weekend, I can vouch for that. Starring Ellen Page (yes, the “Juno” girl) as Bliss Cavendar, a high schooler who rebels against her mom’s (Marcia Gay Harden’s) template for success — winning beauty pageants — the film does indeed have overly familiar elements.

What makes it rise above cliche is the way it uses them.

Nice aprons. When she’s not zooming around the track, Page serves up dishes such as the Squealer with best friend Pash (Alia Shawkat) at the Oink Joint.

For starters, the inhabitants of Bodeen, Texas (which looks to be somewhere west of Austin) aren’t portrayed across-the-board as ignorant doofuses. Yes, the smallness of small-town life — the limited employment and entertainment options and the meanness and small-mindedness of certain characters — is certainly there to see.

However, Harden doesn’t play the mom as an unbending, status-conscious harpy, but as someone who sees pagents as one of the few options available for the town’s teenage girls to improve their status in life. She’s a study in contradictions as well — a former beauty queen herself, working as the town’s letter carrier.

As Page’s dad, Daniel Stern at first appears to be cast as a redneck stereotype — a beer-drinking, sports-loving (with two daughters, he’s obviously jealous of his neighbor’s two football-playing sons and their obligatory yard signs) and badly dressed ex-jock. But he both loves and fears his wife (in a good way) and turns out to be far more open-minded than you’d think from first glance.

A key role is played by Alia Shawkat (“Arrested Development,” “Saving Grace”). As Pash, Bliss’ best friend, she’s Bliss’ accomplice in her secret trips to Austin to compete in the roller-derby league, but is more than just a bystander and enabler. She has dreams of her own, and doesn’t appreciate it much when Bliss’ dreams put hers in jeopardy.

Other miscellaneous notes:

• Though folks will recognize the Austin location shots (mainly South Congress Avenue), most of “Whip It” was filmed in Michigan. The roller-derby action was filmed in an empty Detroit warehouse. The Oink Joint, where Bliss and Pash waitressed, was actually an abandoned ’50s diner somewhere in rural Michigan.The enormous pink pig on top of the diner was brought in from L.A., however.

• Despite the title, the Devo hit “Whip It” is nowhere to be found. Crap! The music is still really good. I need to get the soundtrack, which includes everything from the Ramones’ “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker” to Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.” Sadly, several of the songs featured in the movie aren’t on the soundtrack. I miss the Breeders’ “Cannonball” and Har Mar Superstar’s cover of the Association’s hit “Never My Love.” But there’s so much music in the film, the soundtrack couldn’t possibly have it all.

• Nashville indie pop-rocker Landon Pigg was believable as Page’s aspiring-rocker love interest. As Oliver, front man of the band Turbo Fruits, he was neither an oversexed jerk nor a nerdy emo shoegazer.

• They got the roller-derby action right, as far as I can tell. My experience is limited to watching the great Joanie Weston and the Bay Area Bombers on TV in the ’60s and reading press releases and checking the Web site of the Alamo City Roller Girls (San Antonio’s flat-track roller derby league), but it looked realistic, from the team names (Hurl Scouts, Fight Attendants) to the techniques — especially the whip, hip-checking an opponent into the rail and lots of fighting. It just might have something to do with screenwriter Shauna Cross being a member of the Los Angeles Derby Dolls, L.A.’s top roller-derby team. She was the original Maggie Mayhem, played by Kristen Wiig in the movie. The screenplay is based on her book.

• Barrymore was wise to limit herself to a supporting role. She’s Smashley Simpson, Bliss’ Hurl Scouts teammmate, who basically serves the same role as an ice hockey goon — starting fights with opponents.

• The only unrealistic note: Bliss is a Cavendar, and yet she was never shown anywhere near a car dealership. Maybe Bodeen doesn’t have one.

• During a post-movie pit stop, I noticed the kid at the next urinal was peeing with one hand and texting with the other. I assume he was texting; he was furiously punching on his phone, but never called anyone. He looked to be about 13; not sure if he was just oblivious or showing off. Further proof that youth is wasted on the young.